BERLIN — Vermont state officials are preparing to break ground, or — since it’s January — break snow on a new state psychiatric hospital in Berlin.

Construction of the Green Mountain Psychiatric Care Center — a 25-bed facility next to the Central Vermont Medical Center — is to begin with a ceremony Tuesday afternoon.

The facility is to be the centerpiece of the state’s efforts to replace the Vermont State Hospital in Waterbury. That antiquated facility, which state officials had talked of closing for years, finally had to shut down following flooding from Tropical Storm Irene in late August 2011.

State officials hope to have the Berlin facility open by early next year.